Islamabad: News of the formation of new interim government is circulating in Pakistan after the country-wide protest and resignation of the country’s law minister.

Pakistan’s newspapers are reporting that efforts are underway to replace Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and put in place a caretaker prime minister before next mid-next year.

“Justice [retired] Wajihuddin Ahmad has already been approached by someone ‘important’ with the request that he should not refuse if offered to become the caretaker prime minister,” a report published in The News claimed.

Another national daily, Pakistan Today, also published a similar report on Wednesday, adding that: “This request was forwarded to the retired justice directly and did not go through the prime minister or the president, who are officially assigned to nominate the caretaker prime minister.”

Media reports suggest that retired judge is reluctant to make any commitment at the point.

Wajihuddin Ahmad is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, a human rights activist and a former law professor. He briefly served as chief justice of the Sindh High Court until he refused to take the oath following the military takeover by former General Pervez Musharraf in 1999.

He has been active in politics since 2011 and was nominated as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate for the presidential election 2013 but lost to Mamnoon Hussain. He later resigned from the PTI in 2016 is now seen as a strong critic of Imran Khan.

The country’s political developments, and most probably the interim set-up, are expected to come under discussion at a ruling party meeting called for by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on 4 December.

Important party leaders, including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, are expected to attend the meeting to discuss the current situation and future political and administrative decisions against the backdrop of the Faizabad protest.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) president and former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has warned that any interim set-up by the PML-N and the PPP will not be accepted by the opposition, according to a report published in Urdu newspaper, daily ‘Nai Baat’ on November 29, 2017.

Media reports also suggest that a caretaker government could be given a national look and that the next elections could be delayed due to the census-related complications that the legislature has failed to address so far.

Informed ECP sources were quoted as saying by The News that the census result was bound to delay next year’s elections if the proposed constitutional solution pending before parliament was not approved at the earliest.

In such situation, these sources said that the Supreme Court will be the only authority to decide whether to extend the term of the present government and parliament or that of the caretaker government, which otherwise will have a tenure of 60 to 90 days.